Paris Quotes (France, La Seine …)

Paris Quotes (France, La Seine too) To be Parisian is not to have been born in Paris, but to be reborn there. — Sacha Guitry ... here's what Paris is: it is a giant reference work, a city which you can consult like an encyclopaedia: whatever page you open gives you a complete list of information that is richer than that offered by any other city. Take the shops... in Paris there are cheese shops where hundreds of cheeses, all of them different, are displayed, each labelled with its own name, cheeses covered in ash, cheeses covered in walnuts: a kind of museum or Louvre of cheese... Above all this is a triumph of the spirit of classification and nomenclature. So if tomorrow I start writing about cheese, I can go out and consult Paris like an enormous cheese encyclopaedia. -- Italo Calvino in Hermit in Paris Two days and three endless nights later we arrived in Paris... Paris looked much bigger than Bordeaux, but much uglier. The bread tasted flat. Everything, even the sun…
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Paris Apartments: Glossary of French-English terms

Paris Apartment: Glossary of French-English terms To help English speaking renters and owners to wend their way through contracts, leases and advertisements as the hunt for the Paris apartment moves along, FUSAC has compiled a glossary of terms for Housing. accusé de réception: receipt that is signed by the recipient of a letter and sent back to the sender as proof of reception acompte: advance payment, down payment agence immobilière: estate agency [UK], real estate agency [US] ancien: built more than 20 years ago appareils électriques: appliances appartement vide: unfurnished flat [UK], unfurnished apartment [US] armoire: storage cabinet assurance habitation: homeowner's or renter's insurance. Note: it is obligatory for renters to have an insurance policy. bail, contrat de location (plural = baux): (rental) lease / contract bien immobilier: property box: enclosed parking space with a locked door cage d'escalier: stairwell canapé: sofa, settee canapé-lit, ca…
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Rental Lease and contract in France

The City of Paris is constantly trying to better or at least adjust the rental system. In an attempt to make Paris less expensive to live in, they are now reinstating rent ceilings for a 5 year test period for all new or renewed leases signed as of July 1st, 2019. You can find out the average price of rent in an area given in price per month per square meter based on the address, size and age of the building which you put into the rent calculator (in French). 

More information:

https://www.service-public.fr/

https://www.paris.fr/

Also recently created is also a new type of lease called the Bail Mobilité. This rental lease applies only to furnished rentals that are a maximum of 10 months. There is no security deposit and rents must be within the regular ceilings. The lease must state why this type of lease is needed. If the rental goes past ten months, it becomes a normal furnished apartment lease renewable annually.

Once …

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France Expat memoirs

Thinking of moving to France or just want a laugh? France Expat memoirs are good for both. Learn from those who have gone before you and have lived through the trials and jubilations of expat life in France. You can learn from their mistakes and enjoy their anecdotes "right from the horse's mouth". Or just commiserate! There are a lot of  English-speaking expats living in France, and many have written memoirs. Doing this is easier than ever now with self-publishing options. The currently trending France Expat memoirs have been around for a long time beginning its upward climb as a genre with the still wonderful A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle published in 1989. French License by Joe Start Another book about adapting to life in France, but this time from the perspective of the Paris suburbs and through the trial of getting a driver's license. In fact the whole book is one long road trip. We are so relieved when after 262 pages, 10 years or mille bornes Joe finally gets his F…
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John Vanden Bos de FUSAC, le Boulonnais du mois!

John Vanden Bos de FUSAC, le Boulonnais du mois! (Paru dans Boulogne Magazine mars-avril 2018) John Vanden Bos, l'éditeur qui rendait service au Tout-Paris anglophone Qui ne se souvient pas de FUSAC? Dans les années 90 et 2000, ce magazine de petites annonces était disponible un peu partout dans la capitale, comme feu Paris Paname. La particularité de FUSAC, c'est qu'il s'adressait à tous les anglophones de la capitale, principalement des expats et des étudiants, mais aussi à des francophones désireux d'améliorer leur maîtrise de la langue de Shakespeare. C'est la Génération FUSAC. Aujourd'hui, FUSAC n'existe plus qu'en ligne. Son papa étant voisin, nous l' avons rencontré. Retour sur une formidable aventure et les nombreux défis qu'a dû affronter John Vanden Bos, le Boulonnais du mois. John Vanden Bos, vous êtes le Boulonnais (d'adoption, nos lecteurs l'auront compris) qui a fondé FUSAC, le magazine des petites annonces pour anglophones de Paris et sa région. Les hab…
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Smoke detector countdown

  We have had a smoke detector in our suburban Paris home for many years – it seems “normal” to me, but I realized how unusual its actually was when my housekeeper reported a mouse sound coming from the landing one day while we were on a trip. Thinking that we probably didn't have mice, but not wanting this sound to go without investigation I asked a neighbor to stop by. They couldn't figure it out. The next week my housekeeper saw nothing new and yet heard the peep again. I was quite perplexed, but since there were no other signs I did not pursue the matter. Upon arriving at home and going upstairs I immediately heard the beep of the the smoke detector reminding us to change an expiring battery. A few mintues later I burst out laughing as I realized that the smoke detector was the mouse. The incident made me realize that smoke detectors were not very common. In fact, in France only two percent of homes are fitted with detectors as opposed to 97 percent in Norway and…
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How do you translate… ?

Newcomers, stay with us here: you might need this some day. Old-timers, has something like the following happened to you? You’ve moved to France and after several weeks, your nice bakery-lady realizes that you’re not a tourist but a bona fide resident of the quartier. She’s always found you genial, so one day she tries her luck, saying in French, “I want to put a sign in the window about all our offerings, to attract English-speaking clients. I would be thrilled to translate it myself, as I know a bit of English, but I’m not familiar with specific words related to gastronomy. Could I ask you to do me a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig favor and translate it?  It’s not long-only three paragraphs.  That said, please feel free to say no.” Several months go by and you find a job. You get along well with everyone, from the floor sweeper all the way up to the CEO.  On your way out to lunch one day, the receptionist corrals you and says in French, “My son is looking for an internship in the UK…
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